Geno Smith Is Sucker-Punched in the Latest Bizarre Blow to the Jets

Geno Smith was scheduled to have surgery after his jaw was broken.Credit
Mark Kauzlarich/The New York Times

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — It had been nearly two weeks since absurdity befell the Jets, an epoch in their tormented history.

The latest embarrassing episode did not play out on the field, where three years ago quarterback Mark Sanchez fumbled after ramming into an offensive lineman’s backside. Or at a lectern, where in 2010 Rex Ryan fielded questions about foot-fetish videos believed to feature him and his wife. Or in an office, where Bill Belichick handed the team president a note saying he had resigned as “HC of the NYJ” after one day on the job in 2000.

It happened in the locker room Tuesday morning, where a punch from a reserve linebacker connected with the jaw of the presumptive starting quarterback, another bizarre event in the franchise’s copious annals of mayhem.

The quarterback, Geno Smith, has a broken jaw and is expected to miss the next six to 10 weeks after Coach Todd Bowles said he was “cold-cocked, sucker-punched, whatever you want to call it” by Ikemefuna Enemkpali, who was quickly released.

The episode shocked and deflated the Jets, scrubbing the optimism that has permeated the franchise since a new regime took over in January and revamped the roster after four seasons without a playoff berth.

Even the most veteran players had trouble recalling the last time they had seen or heard about a punch thrown in the locker room, an intense place where bonds are forged and respect is earned or lost. It left them wondering how, and why, what cornerback Darrelle Revis characterized as a “miscommunication” could escalate into a confrontation that threatens to undermine the Jets’ season before it even starts.

Bowles would not disclose what prompted the altercation other than to call it “very childish” and something unrelated to football that “sixth graders could have talked about.” Published reports, citing anonymous sources, indicate that it derived from Smith’s failure to reimburse Enemkpali $600 in airfare and limousine fees after Smith could not attend Enemkpali’s charity event last month in Texas.

Enemkpali (pronounced in-em-PAUL-ee) apologized to the Jets’ organization and their fans in a statement.

“Geno and I let our frustration get the best of us, but I should have just walked away from the situation,” he said. “I deeply regret and apologize for my actions. It was never my intention to harm anyone.”

Declining to address specifics of the disagreement, Revis said he held both players responsible.

“Fights do happen in training camp,” Revis said. “They usually happen on the field.”

By the time the Jets poured onto the field for a morning practice, they were gripped by confusion — a sense, as center Nick Mangold put it, of, What just happened?

There was no sign of Enemkpali or Smith, and no one at the time knew of the severity of Smith’s injury.

In his first training camp as Jets coach, Bowles has had to navigate several tricky situations, and players have praised his approach as firm but measured. His first teachable moment came 12 days ago in his handling of Sheldon Richardson.

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A star defensive lineman who was already suspended for violating the N.F.L.’s substance-abuse policy, Richardson was charged with resisting arrest and several traffic violations after a car he was driving was clocked at 143 miles per hour. The car also contained a 12-year-old and a loaded handgun and smelled of marijuana, a police report said. Bowles stressed that he cared more about Richardson as a person than a player despite his questionable decision-making.

On Tuesday, Bowles cut Enemkpali without hesitation after gathering information, and he said he would have done the same with anyone else.

“You don’t want to learn too many lessons,” Bowles said. “Lately, we’ve learned about three in a row, so we’ve got to get it at some point, and we’ve got to understand what type of team we need to be, what kind of locker room we’re going to have going forward.”

When Bowles addressed the team before practice Tuesday, he did not so much speak as scold, his remarks spiced with expletives.

“It’s hard enough playing 16 games against people that want to beat you,” Mangold said, distilling Bowles’s message. “We shouldn’t put ourselves behind the eight ball. I think that would be putting yourself behind the eight ball off the table in a different room.”

Some years, losing the starting quarterback to injury might be viewed as a godsend by fans. The Jets have been searching for consistency at quarterback for years; they have had nine starters at the position since the beginning of the 2005 season.

Even though Smith, 24, was booed at the team’s green-and-white practice Saturday night at MetLife Stadium, he has had a strong training camp, generating praise from coaches and teammates for his progress and understanding of the system introduced by the new offensive coordinator, Chan Gailey.

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Jets Coach Todd Bowles on Fight

Coach Bowles of the Jets said Tuesday that the quarterback Geno Smith will be out six to 10 weeks after a punch from a teammate left him with a broken jaw.

Smith’s development, combined with a ferocious defense and an improved cast of receivers, restored a sense of excitement — or at least not bleakness — within the locker room.

Unlike the teams of past seasons, the Jets are better positioned to withstand an extended absence by their starting quarterback, having traded for the veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick in the off-season. Fitzpatrick, 32, has started 89 games across 10 seasons, performing his best when he played under Gailey in Buffalo from 2010 to 2012.

“I understand that the opportunities are few and far between, and I understand that my time in this league is probably limited in terms of getting these opportunities,” Fitzpatrick said, adding: “For me, I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done. I feel like there’s so much more that I can continue to improve on.”

Smith, who is scheduled to have surgery, posted a message on Instagram saying, “I’ll be back.” He can return no sooner than Week 3, according to the most sanguine of estimates, and it is no guarantee that he retains his job.

Having ascended to the starting role as a rookie two years ago after Sanchez sustained a season-ending shoulder injury in a preseason game against the Giants, Smith might understand if that were to happen. If the Jets are thriving under Fitzpatrick, Bowles said, he will not replace him. With the rookies Bryce Petty and Jake Heaps the only other quarterbacks in camp, the Jets are likely to add another veteran. Matt Flynn, Rex Grossman and Michael Vick are among the players available.

“You lose your spot by injury, you lose your spot by a bunch of things — if he’s playing great and the ship’s going the right way, you don’t make a move,” Bowles said. “But we’ll see as we go.”

The Jets’ previous general manager, John Idzik, drafted Enemkpali, 24, in the sixth round in 2014, aware that he had been arrested in 2011 and charged with battery on a police officer while at Louisiana Tech. Calvin Pace, who has spent the last two seasons with Enemkpali in the outside linebackers’ room, praised his work ethic and said he was surprised by his reaction.

“Nothing I would ever expect him to do,” Pace said.

This episode, however extraordinary, will be viewed as standard operating procedure by many fans whose very identity has been shaped by years of disappointment, often the bumbling variety.

“That’s just the misperception of this team, that something is always going wrong,” Pace said. “This, probably, since I’ve been here, is the most unfortunate thing that I can really say has happened.”

A version of this article appears in print on August 12, 2015, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Latest Bizarre Blow to the Jets: A Quarterback Sucker-Punched. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe